Tidings in a Box
by Ren Kayashima
Summary: It's the Friday before Christmas, and the BAU is holding it's annual Christmas Party. However, a certain Linguist is bummed and someone comes to brighten her mood.


December 20, 2013

Alex Blake blew out a sigh as she sat down on the edge of her desk. She stared at the mulled cider in her small paper cup. Christmas music played through the office stereo system and most of the BAU was walking around, being social and enjoying the holiday atmosphere.

It was the yearly Christmas party and it seemed like everyone had turned up for the holiday festivities. Most of them would later leave for their vacations. Morgan was headed to Chicago the next day for some quality time with his mother, Reid would be hopping a plane to Las Vegas on Monday to see his mom. Rossi was going up to Commack. Every one had plans, except for Alex Blake.

Rather, she would have had plans if it hadn't been for a snow storm that hit Boston and prevented flights from coming and going. As a result, she was separated from her husband for the next couple days. He had been all set to come down from Boston and spend some quality time with her, but he arrived to the airport only to be told that no flights would be making their way to D.C.. It was just the piece of news that Alex was hoping she wouldn't get.

Yes, the two of them agreed that their careers were important, Alex had just made it to the BAU, a lifelong dream of hers, and James had gotten the teaching job at Harvard. Despite the idea of being a "real couple" again, it was never going to work. Harvard Medical was his dream, and the BAU was hers. Still, they skyped, they called, and they would take weekends to visit each other in Boston and D.C. to keep the relationship alive.

Now all of it looked like it was about to snowball into a complete disaster. The holidays just didn't hold the same glimmer of hope that it once did.

Taking a long sip of the cider, Alex pulled her phone from her pocket and pulled out the long text conversation she had been holding with James since he found out that he wouldn't be coming down. There were a few picture's exchanged. She laughed at the picture of James in his kitchen in Boston holding up a large glass of Irish coffee. _Might as well drink the good stuff, right?_ Blake responded with a photo of her coffee from the café walking distance from the BAU. _At least the good stuff that will keep you awake_.

That had been seven hours ago. There had been no more pictures, but James kept texting her with sweet I-miss-you's and humble wish-you-were-here's. He talked about some of the tests and assignments he was grading to get final grades in on time. Blake shook her head, knowing that she also had final assessments and papers to look at when the TA's had finished the preliminary grading. There were still some parts that she wanted to grade herself. The holidays were shaping up to be pretty painful without James around to share all the short essay explanations that were almost cringe worthy sometimes. She also loved sharing the real gems that she came across every semester.

Blake caught the first few bars of "I'll Be Home For Christmas" and almost laughed in disappointment. She stood up ready to hide in the round table room so she could call James. As she made her way towards the small flight of stairs she had her path blocked by Aaron Hotchner.

"Not feeling the holiday spirit today?" Hotch asked with the faintest glimmer of a smile. He held a small wrapped square box decked in sparkling green paper and a fancy gold bow on top.

"Just missing James right now," Alex sighed.

"Beth's stuck in New York until the snow clears off the runway, so I think I understand." Hotch nodded as he carefully led Alex away from the round table room and towards the holiday festivities. "We're about to open gifts for the office Secret Santa."

Alex looked at the box in his hand. "Your gift is for?" she asked with a smile

"Not mine. Morgan asked me to go grab his so Reid wouldn't know it was his," Hotch answered. "Mine's already under the tree."

"Is it the one with the Angry Birds?" Alex asked with a small laugh.

"No… I lent that paper to Reid," Hotch answered. "He used up an entire role in his attempts to wrap a simple box. I tried to tell him to get it done professionally, but he was determined."

Alex smiled as she turned her attention to the resident genius in the BAU. He was wearing a highly fashionable egg nog mustache while he gestured around wildly. "Well it looks like he figured it out."

"Actually, Jessica took pity on him and finished it up before we had to buy another role of holiday wrapping paper," Aaron sighed. "I guess his skills do not extend to Origami and casual paper folding."

"We all have our flaws."

"You can call James after you open your gift. At least then you'll have something joyful to share with him." Aaron explained. "I plan on calling Beth as soon as the Secret Santa is done." He tucked the box under the tree before leaning against one of the nearby breakroom counters.

Garcia sauntered in fully draped in a green and red holiday sweater that didn't seem to fit the ugly sweater motif that the BAU had agreed to hold a contest over, with festive Christmas tree earrings, reindeer antlers, and a snowman necklace.

"Is that tinsel in her hair?" Alex asked as she leaned over to whisper in Aaron's ear.

"I thought there were a few strands missing from the tree."

"Aaron Hotchner, who knew you could be funny?" Alex said with a laugh.

"I try," Hotch said with a shrug.

"All right, so I don't know who gave who what, so who wants to distribute presents?" Garcia asked loudly.

"Blake will do it," Hotch spoke up, nudging his teammate towards the tree that Garcia, Henry, and Jack had spent a few hours decorating earlier in the week.

"Great!" Garcia grinned, gesturing for Blake to come forward. "I have a good feeling about tonight, but that might just be because I picked a really great gift for a person who shall at this point remain nameless."

"All right, Blake, let's get this started." Morgan chuckled as he handed Reid a napkin as he rubbed his lip. "You got a little something right here, kid."

Reid quickly dabbed at his lip and looked to Blake who took a seat right next to the tree. "Do you need help?"

"I'll do that," Hotch offered walking over. He pulled over a chair and placed it on the other side of the Christmas tree. "I did throw you into the fire."

Alex smiled and started grabbing a few presents. She would check the tag and hand it off. After a couple years at the BAU, she could recognize some writing samples. Morgan got a gift for Reid. Garcia's gift was for Hotch, Reid had a gift for Anderson. It was shaping up to be quite the surprise gift exchange. She herself had gotten Garcia a collection of wild earrings she knew would fit the colorful techie's personality and wardrobe.

Alex was so engrossed in what she was doing; she missed Hotch waving a square box in front of her. She looked up at the gold wrapping paper and silver bow. "It's for you," Hotch said.

"So I know you're all anxious to see what you got, so we'll all open at once and share afterwards, and don't you dare try and save the paper!" Garcia laughed as she looked at her own bobble decorated present.

Blake looked around and found the BAU anxiously ripping into their presents, though it looked like hers would be pretty simple to open. She pulled the bow free and was able to rip the paper away from the top. There was a lid that could easily be pulled off.

Inside the box was a cut glass ornament. She pulled it from the green and red tissue paper and gasped in surprise when she found a familiar phrase etched into the glass.

"Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam," she whispered the familiar Irish quote. "Oh and it's in Welsh too! And Breton! Oh it's brilliant!" she looked around before she peeked at the tag. In surprise she searched for her Secret Santa.

Sure enough, she found him standing at the doors of the BAU talking to someone. She couldn't see the visitor, but she stood up and walked over happily. She stopped suddenly when she saw who the visitor was.

"James!" she cried happily as she jogged over to give her husband a hug. She felt her heart soar as James swung her around and laughed. "How did you get here."

"Train. It was a miracle that there was still a seat available."

Alex backed up and looked at Hotch who smiled as Beth popped up from behind him. "Your husband had the same idea I did it seems." She hugged Hotch close and it was then that Alex noticed that Hotch was holding Jack's hand.

"Hotch, thank you so much for the ornament." Alex grinned holding it up for James to look at.

James took the ornament and nodded in approval. "A country without language is a country without soul. Great quote for a linguist."

"It took me a while to find all of the language translations, but I remember Blake talking about it with Reid one day."

"It's all the Proto Indo-European languages, how did you know I studied that structure in school."

"You're profile on the Georgetown website," Hotch answered. "I'm glad you like it."

"I love it. Thank you."

"What did you get?" James asked looking at the box Hotch had under his arm.

"Garcia put together a photo album of me and Jack over the past few years. I have some from the marathon I ran, and JJ's wedding. It was well done," Hotch smiled happily.

"Well then, Merry Christmas," Blake said as James pulled her into a sideways hug. It felt so good to have James around, she knew that Christmas was now going to be complete, and she would have her partner in crime with her while they both braved the holiday season and graded finals.

0o0o0o0

Author's Note: Merry Christmas! So tis the season for family, gifts, thanks, and all sorts of festive things and it will soon be time to celebrate new beginning at the fast approaching New Year. I wish you well and hope that new year brings amazing prospect. I've spent most of my day making Lembas Bread because it makes a surprisingly great cookie.

This story was for the Christmas Gift Fic exchange that was hosted by pandorabox82, Daisyangel, sugarhigh9394. If you want to check out the stories produced at gifts (my recipient is starofoberon).

Read and Review if you get the chance.

Ren


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